Developing Critical Reading Skills

by Deanne Milan Spears

DEVELOPING CRITICAL READING SKILLS is designed for reading courses at the intermediate and advanced level. As in past editions, this text continues to feature a wide range of interesting and diverse selections, excellent coverage of critical reading skills, and a concluding section on reading short stories. Using practice prose similar to the kind that students will encounter in the classroom, they are encouraged to analyze, interpret, question, and even challenge the words of the writer.

Genres: Reference

640 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2002

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Developing Critical Reading Skills does exactly what the title suggests, and more. Make no mistake: it is a textbook. But it is a very readable textbook. It is also so comprehensive that it is likely to be the only book on this subject you will need to read. Even if this is not new ground for the reader, it will provide an excellent review and, more importantly perhaps, it is the perfect reference book to have at ones immediate disposal.

Deanne Spears thoroughly covers the fundamental principles and the details: identifying the authors purpose, argument and proofs; annotating, paraphrasing and summarizing the essay or book; identifying inferences and challenging assumptions. She covers paragraph development and organization and talks about the importance and type of language, tone (including wit, irony, sarcasm, cynicism, satire), point of view, and allusion.

The author discusses argument analysis and evaluation, fallacies and bias; how to analyze the structure of arguments; how to test a good argument; how to spot emotional appeals and logical fallacies. And so much more.

She also concedes that inductive and deductive reasoning are "limited, and it is difficult to apply them to the real-world argument that may rest on layers of assumptions." The Toulmin Method is then introduced and expounded, as a more useful way to analyze and evaluate arguments.

Highly recommended.

[Lulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my text book in the class I'm taking -- really good so far. Lots of smaller essays and making me want to read things like Granat, New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly etc.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

My undergrad wrapped in one.